My Color Music

Now that we know how to illustrate time (or “duration”) in music, we can play anything we’d like. After all, music is really about two basic things:

1. Pitch (that is, the 12 notes of the chromatic scale), and
2. Duration (like whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, etc.)

All we have to do is combine these two elements of music … and we are in business. For example, check out the following melodies. And as you play each one, notice how every song is just a bunch of notes (pitches) held for different amounts of time (duration). In fact, it’s so easy that it makes me want to cry.

To keep things simple, each of these melodies comes from the same basic C major scale. And every beat follows a basic 4/4 pattern. So just like in the song “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” every melody is just a different rearrangement of the same few notes. And each pattern forms a nice little tune.

Of course, nothing is really new here. And we’re just building on what we’ve already learned. For example, we can look at any key signature to quickly know which notes will be included in a song (right now, everything is in the key of C). And we can also look at each time signature to follow the beat (right now, everything is also in 4/4 time).

Just to get a feel for things, it might help to tap or clap each beat first. Then, after you have a sense of when to hit each note, try playing the melodies with your fingers. As you begin to play, you’ll definitely recognize each melody because they’re all really well-known.

Also, don’t worry if you make a few mistakes. Everybody does when they start a new song. Just go back to the part that gives you trouble and play through the notes again. It might take a couple of tries to get things sounding right. But that’s okay … because all great musicians need practice. As they say, “the more you play, the better you’ll get.” And now that we see exactly what we’re doing, we have a huge advantage in music. Ahhh … life really is good.

As an art form, music is pretty unique. It’s unlike painting, sculpture, architecture, glasswork—and a bunch of other kinds of art—for one big reason. It takes time to unfold and make sense. Unlike other art forms, music must have time to work its way from beginning to end.

To put it another way, it’s easy to experience something like the Mona Lisa or Michelangelo’s David in an instant. The moment we see this kind of art, our brains understand it.

But with music, a song needs time to expand and move forward. It’s kind of cool that way. Music is time … and time is music. So if time stood still, the world would be silent.

Because music is all about time, we obviously need a way to illustrate it in music notation. And just as you might expect, musicians have already come up with a clever way of doing just that. Using “duration” symbols, we can show—in detail—exactly how a song should sound.

With Color Music, it’s easy to play any new song. But … at the same time, it actually shows us how music works. So we also know why we’re playing each note. Which means we get the best of both worlds. On the one hand, it “dumbs things down” so everything is now easy to play. While on the other hand, it also “smarts things up” by showing us the logic or theory of a song.

This double advantage of Color Music is cool because it makes us better musicians … but it might also be confusing. Which is why I think it’s worth mentioning. If you’re new to Color Music, then you might be asking the question “How can music be easier to play … AND easier to understand? Don’t you have to sacrifice one for the other—either simplicity or knowledge?”

The answer, of course, is “No.” It turns out that we can actually learn music faster AND more completely … because we can finally see sound. Just because Color Music is easy doesn’t mean it’s a mindless shortcut. And just because it’s complete doesn’t mean it’s complex. Now that we can simply look at each note, any song is easier to both play and understand.

Like anything else we learn, music is easier to understand once we see what we’re doing. And since we’ve taken off our blindfolds, it’s smooth sailing from here. So yes, Color Music is both simple AND complete. Which is how things should be, right?